Rogue City  ★★★

YOU know a film is going to be brutal if they kill a dog in the first minute.

Rogue City, also known as Bronx, is another of those criminal gang dramas that the French do so well.

Set in Marseille – always a great location – it starts with a mass shooting at a beachfront nightclub.

We then follow the investigation by an anti-gang squad which is also under internal investigation for its methods.

Of course there is also corruption afoot which you know from the moment that Jean Reno turns up as the new Chief of Police.

What elevates the film is the fact it also stops to examine the relationships of the squad members and crime figures with their wives and girlfriends, aka Michael Man’s Heat.

It’s brutal and action-packed with a very French nihilistic ending.